Bills sent to Appropriations Committee for fiscal notes
The state House did not pass a package of reform bills Monday, instead sending the bills back to the House Appropriations Committee for fiscal notes.
The bills will be sent back to the state House for third consideration on Feb. 7.
House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R – Allegheny) spoke optimistically of the bill’s expected passage next week.
“The fact of the matter is we have a substantive agenda,” he said. “We addressed the amendments in a civil responsive manner, in a democratic manner. The results speak for themselves and we’ll be voting on the bills on Monday and I suspect you will see wide bipartisan support.”
Included in the package of bills were H.B. 108, H.B. 104 and H.B. 105, which were awaiting passage of amendments to the bill. H.B. 15, part of the original reform bill package, was held back because it is waiting for a “technical amendment,” said Mr. Turzai.
H.B. 15 would create a searchable internet database for state government spending and taxpayer “investments.” It was introduced by state Rep. Jim Christiana (R – Butler). The representative estimated the website could cost $148,000 to build, based on the costs of 37 other states which have created similar websites, but argued there would be millions of dollars in cost-savings through elimination of redundancies.
H.B. 103, which provides for the disclosure of lobbying activities and penalties and fines for failure to disclose properly, was the subject of fierce debate and rebuttal on the House floor as amendment after amendment was voted as not germane to the subject of the bill.
State Rep. Bryan Cutler (R – Lancaster)
State Rep. Bryan Cutler (R – Lancaster), who introduced H.B. 103, objected to each proposed amendment, including disclosure of family members and domestic partners. Two other amendments proposed safeguards against a “revolving door” between the executive branch and industries it influenced with a two year waiting period. Former Gov. Ed Rendell’s sudden employment by the law firm Ballard Spahr, along with his chief of staff Steve Crawford, was alluded to in the proposed amendments.
Raising an objection to state Rep. Mike Sturla’s (D – Lancaster) amendment to stop the “revolving door” between the executive branch and firms or industries they oversaw regulation or funding for by imposing a two year waiting period on any such employment, Mr. Cutler agreed with the merits of the amendment but argued it should go through the committee process.
“It’s questionable it could be applied to those in the process of being hired,” said Mr. Cutler. “I think we’ve got ample time to vet this through the committee process. I think it’s an important piece of our system, to ensure the integrity of it. Since the underlying bill only deals with penalties, only deals with suspensions and the fines for not properly reporting.”
Every amendment proposed to H.B. 103 was voted as not germane by a majority of the House members. It was the only bill with challenges to proposed amendments.
H.B. 108 would expand on the requirement public contracts be posted online for at least five days. It would create a second provision of listing not just competitive contracts but also noncompetitive, or “no-bid,” contracts.
H.B. 104, expanding on the state’s Whistleblower Law by adding the General Assembly and its agencies to the list of public bodies covered in the law, had an amendment added to it on the House floor Monday. The amendment, introduced by state Rep. Michael McGeehan (D – Philadelphia), increased civil penalties from $500 to $10,000 and was passed unanimously.
H.B. 105, which expands the list of “employees” and “employers” under the Whistleblower Law, had an amendment withdrawn on the House floor and no further action was taken. The list under H.B. 105 lists individuals, partnerships, associations and both for profit and nonprofit corporations.
H.B. 109, which would prevent legislators from creating nonprofit organizations, was also considered Monday and referred to the Appropriations Committee for a fiscal note.
